Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join Deputy Nash and my other colleagues in paying tribute to the employees of the IBRC and expressing the wish that their redundancy terms will be fair. I warmly welcome the deal on the IBRC promissory notes as a commitment delivered on and as another step on the road to economic recovery. It is a giant step forward for Ireland.

As we all know, the IBRC was formerly Anglo Irish Bank and the Irish Nationwide Building Society. A recent "Prime Time" programme on the Irish Nationwide Building Society showed what went on there under Mr. Fingleton. Whenever I hear of the Irish Nationwide Building Society I think of Priory Hall, which is in my constituency, because Irish Nationwide bankrolled Thomas McFeely to build Priory Hall. Maybe if he had not been able to get that money he might not have built Priory Hall the way he did. It can perhaps be said that this is the deal Ireland should have secured when it emerged that the situation in Anglo Irish Bank was so serious.

The significance of this deal and the work that went into securing it cannot really be underestimated. The deal will save Ireland €20 billion in borrowing costs over the coming decades and reduce the national deficit by €1 billion per year. We are not out of the woods but, whether or not there are reductions in spending over the next two years, the burden on Ireland has eased as a result of this deal. It puts our debts on a more sustainable footing. It will help us to improve our economy and create employment, which is the priority.

It was irresponsible of the Opposition to try to put out the message that the promissory notes could somehow be defaulted on or forgotten about. They could not. To do so is not possible under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The promissory notes were sovereign debt. The last Government made them the responsibility of the Irish people and they must be paid back. The Opposition needs to deal with political reality and not fantasy.

Sinn Féin has absolutely no credibility on the bank debt problem which has very nearly ruined this country. It voted to bail out the banks and make the debt sovereign. Yes, it changed its mind later, but it cannot get away from its initial position. Anyone who claims that the country is not in a somewhat better state today than it was prior to the events of last week either fails to understand what is happening or is using existing political developments for his or her own political convenience.

I made a promise to the people who elected me in 2011 to play my part in sorting out the awful mess in which the last Government left Ireland. This deal is part of that promise. It also does what many of my constituents and others from all around the country who e-mail me almost daily have asked for - that we should not pay the €3.1 billion promissory notes. We have now stopped paying them. The promissory notes are history.

For those who loudly called for an end to the promissory notes to criticise the deal after seeing it is surprising and disappointing. Individuals who continue to insist on default must understand that a default or write-down on sovereign debt is illegal. This is the reality within which all in this House, the European Parliament and the European institutions must work. Those who think it acceptable to preach in the media or in this House need to take account of the political realities.

The Labour Party in government is solving the problems that Ireland faces and today is another step towards economic recovery. The Government needs and will strive to bring forward further arrangements for our banking and sovereign debt. More work will be required on this but I am convinced that it will result in further significant results for Ireland and its people.

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